Other Birds

April 1, 2022

In Other Birds, next from the New York Times best-selling Allen, Zoey encounters a runaway girl, two grumpy middle-aged sisters, a famed writer, an isolated chef, and three ghosts when she returns to her recently deceased mother's apartment in a horseshoe-shaped house on South Carolina's Mallow Island, where tiny turquoise birds called Dellawisps flit (200,000-copy first printing). In Emmons's Unleashed, deep cracks in Lu and George Barnes's marriage become evident once only daughter Pippa goes to college, even as Pippa struggles to retain her budding sense of independence amid loneliness and the California wine country surrounding them all threatens to burn. Cohost of the popular podcast Who? Weekly, Finger sets his debut, The Old Place, in a small Texas town where a reluctantly retired schoolteacher Mary Alice finds her life--especially her friendship with close neighbor Ellie--suddenly in question when a long-buried secret is revealed. In debuter Huynh's The Fortunes of Jaded Women, three estranged Vietnamese American sisters living in Orange County's Little Saigon must find a way to lift a curse placed on their family long ago never to find love or happiness (100,000-copy first printing). Blockbuster author Sparks again takes readers to Dreamland in a book about pursuing one's desires possibly at the cost of abandoning the past.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 18, 2022
In Allen’s charming latest (after First Frost), a motley cast inhabit a condo building on a South Carolina island. Recent high school graduate Zoey Hennessey leaves behind her father and stepmother in Tulsa, Okla., to spend the summer in her deceased mother’s apartment in the Dellawisp, named after the birds who stalk the residents. There, Zoey is disappointed to find little in the way of clues about the life of her late Cuban immigrant mother, Paloma Fernandez Hennessey, but she does encounter a cast of intriguing and quirky neighbors, including Charlotte, a henna artist raised in a cult who is at first reluctant to become Zoey’s friend and hides a major secret. Lizbeth Lime, a hoarder killed by a falling bookshelf on Zoey’s first night at the condo, providing an impetus for the plot as Zoey is hired by the manager to clear out Lizbeth’s apartment, then gets help from Charlotte. Allen skillfully weaves the various threads, as vignettes narrated by ghosts of former building residents provide further context as the plot unfurls, shedding light on the mysterious birds and absent figures such as Lizbeth’s estranged son and her reclusive sister. This will move readers.

July 15, 2022
Ghosts with untold stories and guests with long-buried secrets reside in Mallow Island's mysterious Dellawisp condos. Made famous by Roscoe Avanger's legendary novel Sweet Mallow, quaint Mallow Island, South Carolina, proves a welcome respite for Zoey Hennessey. With her inattentive father and stepmother's eagerness to convert her bedroom into a crafting oasis, the 18-year-old decided to leave her home in Tulsa to spend the summer before college at her late mother's old studio on the island. She hopes that the condo, located at the horseshoe-shaped Dellawisp complex, will unearth memories of Paloma, who died 12 years ago in a car accident. Joining Zoey is her imaginary bird, Pigeon, and when they arrive, Zoey is disappointed to discover few traces of her mother...though her new environment proves anything but lonely. Maintained by the elderly Frasier, who is constantly tailed by turquoise dellawisp birds, the condos house a hodgepodge of colorful neighbors, including the burly redheaded chef Mac; the guarded, henna-covered artist Charlotte; the paper-hoarding busybody Lizbeth and her chain-smoking recluse sister, Lucy. When Lizbeth unexpectedly dies the first night of Zoey's stay, Frasier asks Zoey to clean out her neighbor's cluttered home. With Charlotte's help, Zoey is determined to understand the secrets of this eccentric woman, but she soon realizes that Lizbeth may not be the only Dellawisp resident haunted by the past. Allen weaves together an intriguing mystery, following each resident of Dellawisp as they navigate loss and love and uncover what is true and what is real. Charlotte's story in particular stands out; once beholden to her parents' religious cult, she hesitates to trust Zoey's innocence and Mac's selflessness. Allen breathes life into her characters, those living and those in between, and fashions a narrative that imparts a powerful belief in everlasting memory: "Stories aren't fiction. Stories are fabric. They're the white sheets we drape over our ghosts so we can see them." A lyrical mystery that embraces letting go and living freely.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from July 1, 2022
Zoey is spending the summer before college on Mallow Island in the studio apartment left to her by her mother. Zoey is hoping to better understand the mother she lost in her childhood and to create a place for herself at the Dellawisp Condos, a place made special by a mischievous flock of birds, the Dellawisp. Not long after she arrives, however, longtime resident Lizbeth Lime is found dead. Zoey volunteers to clean out her condo, thus getting to know her neighbors and unearthing a decades-long secret. There's so much to appreciate in Allen's latest, following First Frost (2015), from the quaint island setting to the visiting spirits of lost loved ones to the bravely lived lives of an endearing cast of characters. The biggest challenge for the reader is to try to not turn the pages so quickly in order to extend the fun. Intriguing details and magical realism are hallmarks of Allen's fiction, along with a slow-burn mystery that connects the past and present. Once again, she mixes those alluring elements together in the perfect ratio to create an outstanding reading experience. Readers who enjoy a Southern story, a touch of the unexplained, and works by Fannie Flagg and Karen White will all be delighted by this novel.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2022
Zoey is spending the summer before college on Mallow Island in the studio apartment left to her by her mother. Zoey is hoping to better understand the mother she lost in her childhood and to create a place for herself at the Dellawisp Condos, a place made special by a mischievous flock of birds, the Dellawisp. Not long after she arrives, however, longtime resident Lizbeth Lime is found dead. Zoey volunteers to clean out her condo, thus getting to know her neighbors and unearthing a decades-long secret. There's so much to appreciate in Allen's latest, following First Frost (2015), from the quaint island setting to the visiting spirits of lost loved ones to the bravely lived lives of an endearing cast of characters. The biggest challenge for the reader is to try to not turn the pages so quickly in order to extend the fun. Intriguing details and magical realism are hallmarks of Allen's fiction, along with a slow-burn mystery that connects the past and present. Once again, she mixes those alluring elements together in the perfect ratio to create an outstanding reading experience. Readers who enjoy a Southern story, a touch of the unexplained, and works by Fannie Flagg and Karen White will all be delighted by this novel.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2022

Allen (First Frost) returns after a seven-year break with a novel that gathers ghosts and lost souls on Mallow Island, SC. On what was once a rice plantation, where the echoing voices of enslaved people can still be heard, on what became a candy-making powerhouse, where sugar still scents the air, and where a man once wrote a book that sustains the island's tourist industry, sits the Dellawisp, a tiny apartment block occupied by thieving turquoise birds. The human occupants are just as interesting: a talented chef who grew up in the poorest part of the island; a college freshman who inherited her mother's apartment; a henna artist desperate for safety; two sisters living both feet and miles apart; and three ghosts and the caretaker who can see them. In prose not quite as lavish as in her earlier novels, but with the same keen skill building characters and crafting dialogue, Allen unfolds the histories of these people, slowly braiding their lives together in a quiet, resonant story about holding on, letting go, and finding home. VERDICT Languid and peaceful, gentle and comforting, Allen's newest showcases her talent for tender stories of near magic. Her fans will be lining up for this.--Neal Wyatt

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.